Newsletter is totally dependent on its content and its relevance. Know what you wish to say, followed by the art of saying it. Know what you wish to convey in a specific month of the year. Suppose you are a restaurant owner and you wish to promote your mocktails during summer, then convey the same in that month’s newsletter. Pick up a topic each month and relate it to your product or service.
Define you target audience before starting with your newsletter. Know demography, psychographic construct of you audience. Knowing more about them will help you to develop content of the newsletter while keeping tone, manner, and mood of the newsletter apt. Suppose you are selling an anti-ageing crème to the middle aged women, you should know how to approach them, what should be your style of communication and the like. You can’t afford to lose their interest because of inappropriate style.
Don’t make big claims without supporting source of facts. Do ample research before making statements. This way you will not land up into problems too. Include facts, statistics, graphs, expert opinions, quotes supporting your research. Such data always build credibility. But don’t forget to mention the source.
It’s good headlines which instantly draw attention towards the newsletter. Make sure the headline is extremely hard hitting and catchy, evoking curiosity. To make newsletter easy to read break the content into few paragraphs with sub headings.
Make sure your newsletter has audience friendly, easily comprehensive language, which people can relate to. Avoid technical jargons, too long sentences.
A newsletter filled with grammatical errors, spelling mistakes is highly avoided. Apart from the writer, ask someone else to do the job. Mistakes show writer’s lack of concern, interest, and unprofessionalism. If a brand is laughed at, it is hardly taken seriously. So avoid this.
Now get started with it.
]]>We are often tempted to overstuff our PowerPoint slides with too much of text and long paragraphs. Don’t forget presentation is all about putting points on slides and narrating or elaborating them in detail verbally. Don’t suffocate your presentation with too much of text. No one is interested in reading long texts. So write in bullets or points. Elaborate those verbally. Make sure you leave blank space in your slides.
Many presenters love to show off their technical skills by animating each line or graphic of the slides. Remember, simplicity always sells. Don’t let the whoosh sound of your presentation distract the audience. It’s highly annoying when repeated. Keep slides simple, minimalistic, and elegant. Don’t animate each and every text or header or graphic element in it. Too much of rotation, blinking, floating, swinging of elements worsen a good content. Don’t use those animated sounds which are highly disturbing.
Presenters often put factual data, without mentioning the source. It’s a strict ‘no no’. Never put facts and figures, graphs without mentioning its source. No data seems authentic and valid without the source mentioned. People may doubt credibility of your presentation.
Often presenters are seen doing nothing, but simply reading out whatever is there on the PowerPoint slide. It not only bores the audience, but also doesn’t add any value to the entire presentation session. You can add substantial value to a presentation only when you give your valuable inputs besides reading out from the slides alone. It also shows presenter’s lack of confidence, public speaking fear and lack of knowledge.
Make sure you avoid these mistakes.
]]>We often make our resumes unnecessarily long stretched over pages. Always remember, an ideal resume should not be more than two pages. For fresher or junior employees pages shouldn’t be more than one and half page. Unless you are into profession for more than 15 years and head superior positions like Managing director, CEO your resume shouldn’t be too long. Make it crisp, compact yet all inclusive.
We often write things randomly, without maintaining order. An ideal resume should never be clumsy in terms of order of happenings in your life. As for example, state your present job on the top, followed by the earlier one, followed by the one before that and ending work experience column with the first job of your life. Same rule goes for other sections like academic qualification. Always mention latest happening first, followed by the earlier ones. It helps the recruiter know what you are doing in present.
It’s often seen applicants don’t take resume much seriously and treat it as an informal affair. People often put informal email addresses on their resume like – [email protected] or [email protected]. They show immaturity and casual approach of the applicant. Make a formal email account which sounds formal, containing your name or initials and use the same for all job applications.
People often commit the mistake regarding alignment of text. People often put text in center alignment. It jeopardizes balance. Put every text towards left of the page, including name and contact information on the top.
To convey maximum information people are often tempted to write in paragraphs. Don’t do it, it’s dangerous. No one likes to read paragraphs. Put all information in short bullet points or break into points with enough space in between to show distinction of the points. Write in small crisp sentences while conveying all important information like – name of course, name of institute, place, percentage, year of passing.
Once you control these mistakes, your resume can get even better.
]]>Don’t desperately try to remember things. It will just worsen the situation. Rather enjoy your reading. Read slowly, yet steadily. Don’t stress on the fact that you have to remember, just tell yourself that you should understand each point thoroughly. A stressed mind is more susceptible to forgetting.
Don’t expect your brain to work like a genius that you read once and retain things. Repeat your reading, if not each sentence, but the main content. In first reading you may not always get the right meaning, you may also skip few important parts. So repeating will help you to get the right meaning and retain as well.
Don’t forget to underline the important points. While you read, underline the points which are vital, require attention and need to be remembered. Underlining important points will not only help you to remember, but also to get back to the important points at any point of time effortlessly.
While you read, it’s better to jot down points too. Writing always helps in memorizing things better. At the end of each chapter or paragraph you may jot down the main points in bullets. It will help you to remember content of the paragraphs or chapter as a whole. While revising your lesson, you can simply take a glance of then points jotted down. Such points will not only help you to memorize better but also to browse through the chapter at a glance.
If you actually want to remember some vital points for the purpose of examination and it’s little unmanageable for you, write the important points on a white board or stick on pads and keep them in front of your eyes. Place it above your study table or just in front of your bed, so that every time you pass you take a look of the points. This way even unknowingly you will remember the points.
Now, isn’t memorizing task so easy?
]]>Simplicity is the key to success of web writing. Unless your message is well comprehended by all, the whole purpose of writing will go in vain. Keep it simple yet strong, crisp yet impactful, creative yet relevant. No one is interested in reading pages after pages, so keep it short but powerful, including all important things you wish to communicate to your visitor. You can’t beat around the bushes and for the sake of creativity commit the mistake of losing focus. Stick to your topic, stay relevant.
Often web contents are seen repetitive, vague, and lacking concrete substance. But if a website is not informative, doesn’t convey anything meaningful even a good style of writing can go wasted. So, know what all to be included, what are the important points and include them all. Don’t beat around the bushes.
Structure your write up properly, in a smooth flow moving from one thought to another. One sentence should be well connected to the next, but shouldn’t convey the same thing. A well-knit writing with a smooth flow will make reading pleasurable and beneficial for the reader. There shouldn’t be any disconnection. Many writers often use too many conjunctions to make the write up well-knit. But conjunctions show writer’s weakness. Instead, you may change paragraphs to convey different things.
Next time keep these few simple tips in mind while writing web content. It will be easier for you to craft captivating and effective web content.
]]>Before you begin writing, you should create a structure of the article. When you undertake this exercise what you are basically doing is creating a skeleton which you will later fill with flesh, blood, and muscles. The structure of an article provides it a basic framework that will later be developed in a full grown article.
Once you know how your final article will look like, you need to divide your articles into sections and sub-sections using headings and subheadings for better readability. To break an article into sections and subsections apply the rule of thumb given below. The rule of thumb is: always put the important ideas into headings of an article, so that people know what individual paragraphs will talk about, and what the article, as a whole, is about.
Now it is time to add some flesh to the structure you have created so far. Under each headings and subheadings, write 2 or 3 bullet points that summarize the central idea of each paragraph, and which add up to make the complete paragraph.
That is it. You are done. Now only the filling up step is left, which could be done anytime, even after one or more breaks.
As said, the final step in the process is to write content beneath headings and subheadings using the main points (bullet points) that you have listed. By following this guide, you will be able to write good quality articles even when you take frequent breaks.
]]>In the following paragraphs, I am going to talk about 3 indicators that tell you that it is you who is stopping you from getting hired, and when I said you, I meant your habit.
Nothing is perfect in this world; neither you nor any job. If you are waiting for a perfect job to fly from the land of fairy and set down in your lap then I am afraid to say the wait is going to be rather long. Meanwhile, I would recommend bagging a not-so-perfect job that matches your skill set, and which can provide sufficient money for you to survive on.
Be realistic. Weigh every aspect of the dream job you want, and see what all you can let go. You will soon be employed.
Are you relying on just one technique to search for the job? Do you feel uncomfortable trying out different job-search tools and techniques?
To catch a lot many fish, a fisherman needs to have a net that is wide enough and strong enough. Similarly, a job hunter needs to widen his net using all the possible tools and techniques to land up in a good job, which sadly enough, very few people are doing, for they are slave of their habit of using one tool.
This is stupendous mistake committed by a job hunter. No one wants someone who has an ego as big as the size of the Milky Way. I know your ego is comparatively smaller in magnitude, but why does not it reflect in the cover letter you send out? Why your cover letter is talking too much about “I”?
Writing I, I, and I will not land you up in a job, forget about a good job, as no one cares how smart, talented, Einstein-esque you are. Your interviewer cares only about his needs, and about an employee who can meet that need. I know what big a dork he is, but at the end of the day, he is the one who will sign your paying slip, month after month.
Wouldn’t it be smart then to satisfy his needs by talking about his company and how you will add solve the problem he has in a cover letter? From where I am standing, it would be smarter, far smarter to this than to talk about I, me, and myself.
If you, unknowingly, committed any of these mistakes then it is time to undo them, should you want to get hired. After all, we call it habit because we do it unknowingly, as a habit.
]]>The rules and tools of Internet Marketing have not been same even on the Internet. It has changed a lot over the year. But three things remained at the core of it, and will always remain so. These are the things we will discuss in the following paragraphs.
Content is the driving force behind media. Media is nothing if not content serving engine — I know it is marketing vehicle as well, but that is the hidden part of it, which we all feel convenient in ignoring. So to make our media vehicle (read websites, blogs, or forums, etc.) successful, we need to have high-quality content that keeps the visitors reading and asking for more. This eventually will make them join our mailing list.
And do I need to tell you what a stupendously big e-mail list can do to your online business!
What is the goal of website content? What is the reason behind its being? Have you asked these questions? If not then now is the time to ask so because I am going to tell you the answer to this question.
The ultimate, mega, final goal of content is to persuade, nudge, or coax our customers to buy from us, or to subscribe to our mailing list. In other words, the ultimate goal of content is to push people to take desirable action. So again, it went out to content.
Who said content is not important…huh!
This is the final C. This is what we want to build around our product. This is what Harley Davidson got, and other bike brands do not.
A community is so powerful that it can save a company from inevitable bankruptcy. It saved Harley Davidson in early part of 20th century, and it even forced Coca Cola from changing its formula in 1980’s.
Building such a loyal fan base is not going to happen in a day, and for more than 99% of businesses it never happens. But this should be the ultimate goal of a business, for this is very rewarding. You should build, foster, and nurture a community around your product.
Is there anything that can pull all your customers together? Find out what it is and start working upward, until you have a community that grows itself.
Who said organic community…?
The 3Cs we discussed above can easily make or break your business. You should, therefore, take measured steps and not let any of the three go out of control.
]]>A standard business letter can be broadly divided into 5 major parts – Heading, Date, Opening, Body, and Closing.
Start your letter with the date in the left hand upper corner. Date is very important since it determines the priority of action and it’s also helpful for the future reference. Place the date immediately below the letterhead specifications.
Then put the name of the recipient, his or her job title, name of the company and its address. These should always be written in the left side. As for example,
Mr. Jack Hill
Senior Manager
Rainbow Fabrics
87 Lindsay Mall Road
Sydney 2006
Include a salutation in the upper left corner. Commonly it’s addressed as ‘Dear’ followed by the name of the person. The person can be also addressed as ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.’ or ’Ms’. If the recipient’s name is unknown, refer the concerned person as Sir/Madam.
Now come to the body of the letter. It should be crisp, courteous and clear. It should have a beginning, mid and end. Purpose of the letter should be effectively communicated in the first sentence. If the letter is written is response to any advertisement or telephonic conversation or a personal recommendation that source of reference should be communicated in the first line. Put space between the paragraphs. Avoid indent. Don’t fill the page with unnecessary detail. Even if the length remains short communicate intended message effectively. Do not use heavy and fancy words. Reader won’t waste time in referring to a dictionary while reading the letter. Keep the language simple and tone formal.
Closing of the letter defines your intention. Sign off while thanking the reader. End with sign off languages like – Yours faithfully’ or ‘Yours Sincerely’ followed by a comma. Type your full name beneath the body in the left side and place your job title below that. Once the print is done, put your signature below the printed name.
Once the letter is ready check and re-check the letter for spelling and grammar. A poorly crafted letter with spelling and grammatical errors always leaves poor impression on the reader. Also verify accuracy of the letter by someone else besides spell and grammar check command of Microsoft Word Processor.
Preferably use letterheads. Use formal fonts instead of fancy fonts. Font size should be not more than 12 and black in color.
That’s all you need to take care of while writing a good business letter.
]]>Copy is what determines the future of the website. The more time you will invest in creating the copy, better will be the future of your website.
]]>Right?
Wrong!
All types of writing are not cut to be equal. The style, mood, tone, use of words, arrangement of paragraphs, objective, target audience, and even length of different types of articles are different. The article that may work for one medium may not work on another. For example: the article that you post on your website will not be same as the article you posted last night on ezinearticles.com.
Talking of ezinearticles.com let me explain how you should write for article directories.
No one likes reading text-heavy articles, not at least in article directories. Make your article visually scannable through the end by adding bullet points, and making the important keywords bold. The things that you have highlighted should give away the central meaning of the article.
An article between 250 and 800 words work like a charm in article directories, anything shorter or longer than that gets overlooked by the reader. I will recommend using 350-400 words articles.
None of the paragraphs should be longer than 3 to 4 lines, and no sentence should be too long. Short sentences and simple words are easy to understand, which help you increase the readership of the article. Do not write complex sentences.
I am not among those who are strict about the grammar usage, yet I recommend reviewing the article for obvious grammatical and punctuation mistakes. You must review it before submitting to the directory.
Do not take guidelines set by article directories lightly. By doing so, you risk rejection. Read the guidelines carefully and follow them.
Follow these principles and you will get desired results from the articles.
]]>Then why they are not plunging in?
Because we are not living in the era where capital matters. What matters today to make a business successful is idea. A business requires a killer idea to become successful. In the paragraphs below, I will tell you how to find a killer business idea.
Once you are through with this, make a business plan and execute it. The business plan should cover every aspect of a business. You need to ascertain the challenges as well as opportunity. Do a SWOT as well as PESTLE analysis. Do not forget to make a list of things you need to run the business.
]]>Anatomy of a cover letter
A cover letter should not be more than one page long, and when I say “page” I mean “A4 size page”. Subdivide your cover letter into 3 paragraphs, and try to keep the cover letter within 350-400 words. The goal of your cover letter is to generate interest in the reader not to chock him to death with your uncontrolled biographical rattling.
Put name and address of recipient at the top on the left-hand side of the cover letter, and fold the cover letter putting names and address at the top.
Do not begin your cover letter with “To Whom It May Concern” as it will not concern anyone. Find the name of the person you are sending your résumé, and use his second name (family name) as salutation as in Dear Mr. Jones, or Dear Ms. Lloyd. If you fail to get name of the person who will read your cover letter than you can simply write Dear Sir/Madam.
Being this paragraph with writing why you want to work with the company followed by giving a brief introduction about yourself and talk about the academic qualification you have in brief (of course, I am assuming here that you fresher looking for your first job). Do not tell the reader everything you know. Say only as much as required to garner interest.
The second paragraph of your cover letter should consist of the things you learned while pursuing your highest degree, the degree on the basis of which you are applying for the job. Mention 5 to 7 key concepts that are relevant to the industry. Talk about cutting edge things that you learned.
Write how you can add value to the organization if you are hired. Just use 2-3 sentences to explain this.
You should sound confident while writing a cover letter, but avoid sound overconfident. You should sound sincere in seeking employment but never sound begging. It’s not good for health and morale. Be professional and sound like one. No one cares how you got that stain on your shoes. They just do not like stains.
]]>As a writer (freelance, web or otherwise), are you doing it to yourself?
Are you stopping yourself from consuming those lovely shows and soaps that you always liked?
If you are doing this then it is a big mistake, a huge one. You need to stop at once and start indulging in movies, soaps, and plays.
Why?
A movie is a fertile ground for a writer to learn trick of the trade. It teaches you many things including:
And along with these story mechanics, a good movie also tells you:
A movie also tells you about your market and about what words to use, what kind of sentences to construct, and how long or short sentences and paragraphs should be. One also learns the art of creating favorable ambience to get the emotional response sought by the article.
It is very important for you as a student of writing to watch movie and learn from it. Be a keen observer, and do not just consume a movie, observe it. In order to learn something from the movie, you have to dissect the various scene and emotional responses that led to the dramatic ending the movie had. You can then use it to create the experience you want in your audience.
]]>The process of writing can be divided into three stages. These are:
Let’s discuss each one of them in brief.
Pre-writing is the phase in which we ideate about what we have to write. We prepare a structured layout of the piece we have to write. In this stage, we accomplish the following things:
This is the phase in which you give shape to the ideas generated in the pre-writing phase. In this phase, concentrate on the writing only, do not go for editing or anything like that. Write through the end without worrying about the errors in this phase.
This is the phase in which we give final touch to our written piece. We make the changes if required, proofread it for grammatical, structure and punctuation errors. You can also shift sentences or paragraphs up and down to make the article more cohesive.
Any writing, no matter what you are writing, follows these steps. Some writer follow these steps intuitively, i.e., in their minds, while other have to use paper and pen to go through these.
]]>A press release should not be longer than one A4 (8.5”X11”) size paper. Divide your press release into 4 to 5 small paragraphs.
Do not use more than two quotations in the press release. And do not start a press release with a quotation. Quotations should come not earlier than the third paragraph. Only use quotations that come from the person behind the news or from CEO of the company.
You must include “About the company” at the bottom of the press release.
The contact details written at the bottom of the press release should be working. Do not put any phone number of e-mail id for the heck of it. Provide contact details of a person who is in charge of the media releases. This is important because you never know which journalist needs more info and hence end up contacting.
Start a press release with giving a proper place and complete date.
### marks the end of the press release, so you should not forget to add this.
I have provided a proper format of a press release in the previous article titled, structure of a press release. Do read it.
]]>Remember that the purpose of this letter is to thank the interviewer for their time, not to try and sell yourself once more. That part of the interview is long gone, and this is your chance to show your professionalism and appreciation. Etiquette dictates that after an interview a thank you email should be sent within 24 hours, and a regular mailed letter should be sent within the first 2 days afterward.
In the actual formation of your letter you should make sure that it is business standard. Type it up, make sure to use the interviewer’s name and company address, so as to refer to them professionally. Then write a few paragraphs of thanks. Don’t be afraid to re-outline your interest in working for that company. But don’t get bogged down in mentioning your qualifications once again. They have your resume, and you’ve given them an interview, they got a feel for you. This letter is simply about thanking them for the opportunity given. Don’t forget that, or push it aside to give them another personal sales pitch.
Taking the time to write a thank you letter could even be more effective than you might think. So make sure you do, many people overlook the thank you letters and emails that they should be sending. By ensuring you do this every time, you show your attention to detail, and commitment to getting the job. Both are fantastic characteristics, and ones that you should use to your advantage.
]]>Good writing should be as concise and always to the point as possible. When you write too much fluff your readers tend to shut off their brains, or worse, get bored and stop reading altogether. You first edit should focus on how you can take what you’ve written, and formulate it into a shorter piece of work that tells the same story. Nobody wants to read over inflated paragraphs or multiple sentences that make the same point.
After that, learn your strengths and weaknesses. If you’re not very descriptive, make sure you spend extra editing time ensuring that your moments of description are fleshed out well enough. You can’t be too vague, but you also don’t want to over describe to make up for your weakness. Also learning the areas that you tend to need work on will allow you to target where you should go first when editing a piece.
Get as much feedback from third party sources as possible. Get a friend to read what you’ve written, or a coworker, or even a family member. Someone that will provide you with good honest criticism. We all need honest criticism so that we can grow as people, and writing is no different. In fact writing ability hinges on your ability to get effective criticism, and incorporate it into your style to become a better writer on the whole.
Finally, always give your piece a read through backwards. This is especially helpful for noticing little grammatical errors, or punctuation mistakes. By reading backwards your brain doesn’t concentrate on what the writing means, but just on the words and characters themselves. This affords you the opportunity to avoid being engaged in what your writing says, instead focusing on how you’ve written each individual portion.
]]>Sometimes, instinct gives a good indication about what topic will get warm welcome from the readers, and what will be ignored as if it never existed, but instinct cannot be a reliable guide, if you have to write daily or regularly for any magazine, newspaper, online magazine or blog. You need a more reliable system then the instinct has to offer.
Before working on developing any idea into an article or a blog post, you should check how it does on the following parameter:
The chances are quite high that the topic you are going to write about has already been covered by the magazine or blog you are writing for. Even if they have not covered it, their competitors must have done that. Do you have anything new to say about the weight-loss program you are going to write about? Any new development or a new angle? Even a fresh point of view can offer the required newness.
If you want people to read what you write, your articles and blog posts need to flow. No one likes bumpy rides. Your words and sentences should help them glide through the paragraph after paragraphs. Do not use jargons, and keep the structure as simple as the writing idea permits. Always remember, your readers have limited time, and in this time, he can either read your article or do other things like, watching television, listening music, or write on Facebook walls.
This is the most crucial point. You have a groundbreaking idea, and your writing style makes you hell of a charmer, but still your visitors are not falling over each other to read your piece, why? May be because you have targeted a wrong market, and the readers here are too smart or too stupid for your kind of articles. People will read only if you step up or step down (depending upon where you are) to their level. Can the reader connect with your article?
Imagine this: you have come home after a long tiring day at office, and you turned on your laptop to read something, or picked a magazine to browse through. Your eyes happen to find an article that has a nice juicy headline, interesting sub-headlines, and even the first few lines are written wonderfully. You couldn’t resist but read it till the end, but here comes the bomb. The article has nothing to offer but a nice flowing style of writing. It doesn’t add even a single word, sentence or idea to your repertoire of the existing knowledge. You feel wastes. Your reader will feel the same, so make sure you are writing because you have something valuable to offer.
The entertainment value of any article should not be underrated. People do not read your article just because they feel you are going to redeem them. They do not think that way, nor are they here to get enlightened, though they will not mind it, if the redemption and enlightenment is offered sugar-coated in entertainment. You do not need to preach to send the serious message across. Do not think readers are so blunt.
]]>Well, always reread anything you’ve written a few times, to ensure that your sentences flow naturally, and to clear up any grammatical mistakes you may have made. Good policy also suggests reading your pieces aloud, as it’s a fantastic method to double check how your writing sounds on the whole. Reading aloud will give you the opportunity to make sure that everything flows properly, and that all sentences sound complete.
Another widely used, and remarkably effective tactic, is to read in reverse. This is helpful for weeding out those cursed grammatical errors that you may still miss despite completing two or three rereads. When you read your piece in reverse it eliminates the brain’s tendency to remember what you’ve written, which can cause you to skip over mistakes without even knowing that you have.
When restructuring a sentence never add more words to the sentence than were originally there, always cut the excess. The problem with most first drafts of any piece of writing, is that they are much longer than necessarily needed. Focus on condensing your concepts into as few sentences and paragraphs as possible, that way you can form a short concise work that will appeal to a broader audience.
These are just a few quick editing tips, there are many, many more concepts when you really get more in depth into what the editing process can do for a piece of writing. But follow those guidelines and you’ll find yourself well on your way to becoming a better, and more complete writer.
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